2020-2021 President’s Report
by Krista Van Hove, ASLA
ASLA-NCC Chapter and It’s Members,
I am so grateful to serve you all as your chapter president this past year. If it weren’t for the executive committee, our executive director, enthusiastic volunteer, emerging professionals, dedicated sponsors, and each of our members we wouldn’t have the support and funding to make the difference that we have to date.
One thing I have a deeper understanding of is how strong and resilient the landscape architecture community is in the Northern California Chapter. Despite the uncertainty of projects and employment, so many of you have used this opportunity to come together and make a difference in our communities from the inside out. This couldn’t have happened with better timing as our chapter prepares to host the 2022 ASLA Conference for Landscape Architecture in San Francisco, November 11-14. We get to share something very special with the rest of the country that comes to visit us at this year’s conference.
Even though we did not get to start the year off with our annual Shark Game Night, we did have a record attendance at our Virtual Awards Presentation with over 100 attendees for the second year in a row. We want to thank our awards committee, volunteer jury, and everyone who submitted entries for a memorable event. Please continue the inspiring work and we look forward to your future entries.
To follow-up with the Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) action plan put into place by Past President, Blake Rhinehart, and Vice President, Monique Bassey. This year the new committee was able to create our first JEDI webpage, which is full of resources to encourage our membership to be the change we want to see through design and encourage better interactions in our workplace and beyond. This committee has other projects in the works you will hear more about in 2022, so please stay engaged. If you would like to volunteer with this committee, please email Arturo Fuentes-Ortiz at afuentesortiz@asla-ncc.org.
Our emerging professionals committee not only stayed engaged with its members by creating an active online volunteer committee. There were two new committees that were formed from this group to provide new professional resources including, the Landscape Architecture Resources Community (LARC) and New Bay Area Talent (NBAT). Their discoveries will be apart of our website soon.
We also had an extensive amount of collaboration with our student chapters and local landscape architecture programs. We were able to sponsor 10 students to attend the annual LABASH conference, which was hosted virtually by Cornell University. We joined visions with the UC Berkely student chapter for their student-led mentorship program, supported their portfolio review workshop and helped set up virtual firm visit tours. This amazing team also collaborated with The Academy of the Arts University, San Francisco (AAU) on a number of student engagement and alumni led virtual events. We are very excited to announce that our chapter has submitted a nomination to Nation ASLA for their program to become an affiliate student chapter, and as of a few weeks ago has been approved. This will open the door for many more opportunities for their students to succeed and be recognized on a national level. Our hope for this year is to continue to engage with the students and professors at Lake Merit College to provide similar support and resources. Please reach out to Monique Bassey mbassey@asla-ncc.org if you would like to volunteer or engage with our efforts.
Since the summer of 2020, when we no longer could meet in person, we have been hosting a virtual series every month called Lunch with Leaders – Industry Icons. This years guests included David Walker, Andrea Cochran, Mia Lehrer, Michael Boland, April Philips, June Grant, Kona Gray, Sara Hammerschmidt, Angela Dye, Charles Birnbaum, Kellyann Foster and Michael Grove. If you missed any of our presentation, please view our website for the recordings. I want to thank everyone on the lectures committee, all who attended our series and stayed engaged with us this year!
Our emerging professionals committee not only stayed engaged with its members by creating an active online volunteer committee. There were two new committees that were formed from this group to provide new professional resources including, the Landscape Architecture Resources Community (LARC) and New Bay Area Talent (NBAT). Their discoveries will be apart of our website soon.
We also had an extensive amount of collaboration with our student chapters and local landscape architecture programs. We were able to sponsor 10 students to attend the annual LABASH conference, which was hosted virtually by Cornell University. We joined visions with the UC Berkely student chapter for their student-led mentorship program, supported their portfolio review workshop and helped set up virtual firm visit tours. This amazing team also collaborated with The Academy of the Arts University, San Francisco (AAU) on a number of student engagement and alumni led virtual events. We are very excited to announce that our chapter has submitted a nomination to Nation ASLA for their program to become an affiliate student chapter, and as of a few weeks ago has been approved. This will open the door for many more opportunities for their students to succeed and be recognized on a national level. Our hope for this year is to continue to engage with the students and professors at Lake Merit College to provide similar support and resources. Please reach out to Monique Bassey mbassey@asla-ncc.org if you would like to volunteer or engage with our efforts.
Since the summer of 2020, when we no longer could meet in person, we have been hosting a virtual series every month called Lunch with Leaders – Industry Icons. This years guests included David Walker, Andrea Cochran, Mia Lehrer, Michael Boland, April Philips, June Grant, Kona Gray, Sara Hammerschmidt, Angela Dye, Charles Birnbaum, Kellyann Foster and Michael Grove. If you missed any of our presentation, please view our website for the recordings. I want to thank everyone on the lectures committee, all who attended our series and stayed engaged with us this year!
